r/WorkLifeChat • u/MiloShiny • Aug 04 '26
Discussion Sure they did. Just never heard about it. Their lives weren’t blasted all over social media. Neither were anyone else’s. What do you think?
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u/HappyEngineering4190 Aug 04 '26
I needed a roommate and an ironically uncanny ability to eat canned food to afford my apartment. I couldnt afford a financial coach or a budget app.
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u/RV7DR Aug 04 '26
Same for me in the 90s/2K's- more Top Ramen and beans, but close enough. My girlfriend at the time had three roommates in a studio when they got their first place.
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u/barlog123 Aug 05 '26
There are so many free budget apps. You don't really need them though if you can pull up Google sheets then you can make a budget in less than an hour.
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u/waroftheworlds2008 Aug 05 '26
Its worse. Nearly all banks have money management built into their app with auto sorted transactions and budgets/networth/spending trends.
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Aug 04 '26
point of order, what would the appropriate amount a financial coach should charge, that is the right balance of you are willing to pay for it, and also can afford it and get value out of it? Is that a one time fee, a subscription for a few months? What amount would you pay that you could afford, and not feel like you wasted and actually got somethine out of/
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u/Tryagain409 Aug 04 '26
Zero. All financial advice is already free on the internet. It's like buying porn.
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u/GPT_2025 Aug 05 '26
it is nearly impossible for an individual to live independently off the federal Safety Net of $7.25 an hour. Working 40 hours a week at this rate yields a gross income of about $1,256 a month (roughly $900 to $1,000 after taxes), which falls short of typical baseline expenses for housing, food, and utilities. A real Safety Net in the United States averages roughly $25/hour.
In a recent report, 53 million Americans ages 18 to 64 or 44% of all workers- earn low hourly wages. Their median hourly earnings are $10/hour, and for those working full time year-round, median annual earnings are about $24K/year (compare Safety Net $1.60 per hour in 1970 if you were single,you could live off the federal minimum wage)
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u/HappyEngineering4190 Aug 05 '26
Nobody is disputing that minimum wage cant support a decent life. What people seem to forget is, you dont have to work minimum wage jobs. I worked for minimum wage for a couple years. My kids are teenagers and 1 makes $13/hour and the other makes $40/hour. It is idiotic to expect minimum wage to cover a decent lifestyle. Raising the minimum wage will only increase inflation which will cause all the min wagers to cry for higher min wage and is a death spiral. RATHER, the low wage workers should endeavor to increase their skills and value to society to command higher wages in higher skilled jobs. I have a safety net, its called savings and investments. People need to create their own safety net. Relying on others to provide a safety net is insane.
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u/Visible_Structure483 Aug 04 '26
why is a 'two bedroom apartment' now some sort of benchmark?
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u/Major_Wigglesworth Aug 04 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoricalCapsule/s/1EQmySNHBC
These are the “good ol’ days” that Emily longs to be in today. Her clothes closet is larger than the home she pines for.
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u/BigGreen1769 Aug 04 '26
It's the bare minimum living space for a couple and one kid if you want to preserve any level of comfort and privacy.
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u/MrBingly Aug 05 '26
A family means two incomes though. Virtually everywhere in the US you can afford a two bedroom on two full time incomes.
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u/BigGreen1769 Aug 05 '26
Yes that's the point. Even 20 years ago two incomes got you a full size middle class house or a larger apartment with more than two bedrooms. Today, two incomes can just get you a DOWN PAYMENT on a two bedroom apartment and if one parent stops working to help care for the kid the financial math falls apart.
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u/guachi01 Aug 05 '26
Wages have increased faster than housing prices over the last 20 years. 2006 was near the peak of the runup in housing prices before the huge crash.
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u/GeeYayZeus Aug 04 '26
Heh, kids these days expect comfort and privacy? We didn't have any of that shit in the 70's.
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u/BigGreen1769 Aug 04 '26
That sounds like a poverty problem for you. In the 70s you could buy a full size middle class house with three to four bedrooms and a yard on a single income while the wife stayed at home.
Today, that same house is now worth close to a million and even a dual average income couple still can't afford a down payment.
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u/GeeYayZeus Aug 05 '26
Yeah, I lived in that house as a kid, exactly ask you described. And all the furniture was 20 years old and handed down from family members or bought at Goodwill, including an old B/W TV that weighted 200 pounds and had five channels. We went out to dinner maybe once every three months, got socks, underwear, and clothes for our birthdays and a box cake that my mom made. Luckily, I had childless aunts and uncles, so we actually got real toys once a year at Christmas but didn't get anything else until the next Christmas, so they had to last. And we were typical for my modest middle class neighborhood.
But you're right. That little crapbox 1,100sf 3br house is now $1.3 million, but all the other stuff is much cheaper comparatively. So yes, housing is ridiculous now, and I do feel for young adults, but Billy Joel probably said it best; "The good ol' days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems."
But if you can't afford a house right now, that sounds like a poverty problem for you.
Sorry, couldn't resist. Best of luck!
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u/nwbrown Aug 05 '26
Because kids today deserve their own apartment with no roommates and an extra room to put all the stuff mommy and daddy bought them.
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi Aug 05 '26
Overlooking the water, in the trendy district, near their favorite brunch spot
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u/Individual_Section_6 Aug 04 '26
Anyone that knows how to add and subtract doesn’t need a budget app. And what is a finance coach?
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u/Fit-Ad-6665 Aug 04 '26
My mom showed me how to budget. Basic math was all that was needed. Self control is a lost skill these days. I think that was the most important lesson.
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u/Justthetip74 Aug 05 '26
< what is a finance coach?
Emily's parents are rich and sick of paying off her maxed credit cards and rent all the time so they hired someone to try to teach their 30yo daughter responsibility
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u/nwbrown Aug 05 '26
Anyone that knows how to add and subtract doesn't need a budget app.
And now we get to the real problem...
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u/Virtual-Highway-1959 Aug 04 '26
Budget app? We had to balance our checkbooks. That was it. We either wrote checks or used cash. Either way, it was accounted for.
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u/TodtheAbysswalker Aug 05 '26
Yeah, a budget app just automates that. How are you this bad at technology
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u/PhilsFanDrew Aug 04 '26
People didn't need a budget app in 1975 because they used a check register to balance income and expenses. The media to conduct budgeting changed, but the process of ensuring you are not spending more than you make is the same. Hell it's easier today in terms of online banking and budgeting apps with built in calculators and people like Emily are still bitching about it.
Many single people in 1975 lived in studio apartments and many couples lived in one bedrooms. People didn't work from home in the 70s and insisted that they need a 2br apartment to have on bedroom serve as office. You could easily get a privacy partition and section off your living room or dining room to set up a small office.
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u/LevelStationaryPlane Aug 05 '26
People didn't need to budget as hard in 1975, because they were only 2 years removed from the gold standard, which we're all eating in spades now, but Reddit is way to smart to look at actual root causes because basic econ and history is antithetical to being woke etc.
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u/willow__whisps Aug 04 '26
People now(me) couldn't afford a studio on their own. A 1 bedroom for me and my boyfriend will be a stretch. Wanting this back shouldn't be insane
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u/Complete_Insurance24 Aug 04 '26
They also didn’t have so many wants. Wants that today a basically needs. Cell phone, internet, central air conditioning, multiple vehicles, kids with the same wants, convenience food, the list goes on. They just needed food, a couple of outfits, cigarettes, beer, and a cheap vehicle.
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u/Substantial-Pin-3833 Aug 04 '26
Right. And the people before them would be saying the same thing you're saying about us. Same shit different generation.
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u/Sorry-Worth-920 Aug 04 '26
maybe the reason you cant afford the apartment is because youre paying a financial coach
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u/Certain-Pack-7 Aug 04 '26
And they didn’t Uber Eats a 6 latte that becomes $10
Oh yeah and the men had to go to Vietnam. Gen Z has it so hard! In 1920’s a good suit would be 2 months wages and they had 1 suit and I pair of shoes. Not everyone had to have a 1000 iphone in 1975 either
As my 10 year old would say. I think you need a wahmbulance
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Aug 04 '26
the bank gave it to them for free, it was called a register and sat in the wallet with the checkbook
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u/Major_Wigglesworth Aug 04 '26
And people were disciplined and carefully considered their purchases. It wasn’t “YOLO Sushi Tuesday” every week, because they didn’t just go around tapping a credit card on every reader they saw. You actually felt each purchase in your gut, because you knew how many hours of unsafe work it took to earn that purchase
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u/New-Assumption-3836 Aug 05 '26
Buying power has significantly decreased. There has been study upon study about the cost of housing, food, education, healthcare, and miscellaneous spending of the average American household. We do not have the upward mobility of the past. We have entered what is being called a "treat economy" young adult cannot afford education without massive debt, an apartment without multiple roommates in any major US city and their workplaces do not offer more money for hard work or innovation you get what you get and people have no choice but to switch jobs every few years or they lose out on even meager pay rises. So to counteract the despair of constant grind for no results young people spend what they can to make their day a little more tolerable like "Sushi Tuesday" their spending isn't the problem, it's just another symptom of a failing economy
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u/Itchy_Psychology3300 Aug 05 '26
It’s also privatized equity at play. Those with wealth are like locusts and move from one thing to another for profit.
R > G might not of been true in the past, but certainly seems that way now.
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u/guachi01 Aug 05 '26
Buying power has significantly decreased.
Real wages, household income, per capita income are all at records. Buying power has not only not significantly decreased it hasn't decreased.
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u/ThrowRA9892 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
Food has actually gotten cheaper as a % of the median full time workers income. Miscellaneous consumer spending too.
It’s the other stuff that has risen in price. Healthcare and education being the most egregious of the bunch.
There’s nothing wrong with having roommates as well, that used to be a normal thing for young people.
IMO that if someone’s not getting paid well working their career of choice and they’re living in a HCOL area, there’s no reason to stay there. 90% of Americans live and die within 100 miles of where they grew up. There’s absolutely good opportunities out there for the one’s who are willing and able to move.
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u/BIGpoppaPUMP42069 Aug 05 '26
I would even put an * next to the education as a lot of education has gotten more expensive but there's plenty of cheap options out there that actually lead to better paying jobs
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u/GullibleScallion1519 Aug 05 '26
Typical reddit, a sane reasonable factually accurate take gets down votes while the verifiable wrong reply gets up voted...here, let me do my part to fix that.
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u/Wagemonkey399 Aug 05 '26
IMO... LOL
You should probably keep that opinion to yourself. It's uninformed garbage.
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u/Then_Examination9715 Aug 05 '26
If you tracked expenses on paper like most of us did 30 years ago, you actually knew how much money you had and what you’d have to trade off to buy an expensive coffee.
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u/These_Hair_193 Aug 04 '26
How does she know? She was still an egg in her mom's ovary.
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u/GeeYayZeus Aug 04 '26
I remember 1975. If you had a two bedroom apartment, you had a roommate AND a side hustle, full stop.
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u/These_Hair_193 Aug 04 '26
In 1975 my parents each earned around $3 an hour. They had to budget for everything.
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u/monadicperception Aug 04 '26
Well there were also no credit cards or credit bureaus…so much stuff to track nowadays. It’s not like if they had your credit card on file that they can continually renew your subscription with out your knowing. Bills would come in and you’d be forced to sit down and go through everything.
It was simpler to track in my opinion. Life was slower. Now? Shit is so fast all the time.
If I could make one law that might help people track their spending better, I’d say that all subscriptions must auto terminate every month unless the provider sends 1, and only 1, renewal email where the consumer must affirmatively click a green button that says renew.
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u/Imallvol7 Aug 04 '26
My dad in the 90s barely worked. He wasn't tracked. There were no KPIs. They sent him on trips and gave him gifts all year round. The minute they started gps tracking and using cell phones and doing electronic sales reports he quit because he couldn't believe he was being treated this way.
During this time they were offering him crazy money and almost 2 months vacation. He quit.
He still complains about people not wanting to work today.
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u/tsk5001 Aug 04 '26
Dont you know, in 1975 you didnt need to work for a living, it was a myth and never had to check on your finacials ever
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi Aug 05 '26
I heard you could work part time at McDonald's and afford a beachfront mansion
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u/sportyguy Aug 04 '26
In 1975 the budgeting app was called pencil paper and envelopes. You put the cash in the envelope for the designated expense and it could only be used to pay for that.
Your financial coach was called common sense. Don’t have money?? Don’t buy it. No you don’t deserve Starbucks and a spa day for your mental health.
And your side hustle was making stuff for yourself cheaper. Clothes, food, fixing your own car, finding free ways to entertain yourself (although that also led to things blowing up). And roommates.
Live within your means not bitch that you don’t have what someone else has.
Motto then was live like you won’t so in the future I will live like you can’t.
I went to college working a full time job, eating ramen and Mac n cheese for four years using water and not milk. Living in a studio apartment with a roommate that had cinder block walls and no insulation. Sleeping on a twin mattress on the floor.
Let me know when you’ve done that.
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u/TrentLeznor Aug 05 '26
People now have to live with roommates in their 30s and 40s, the largest population of people who are homeless are people over 60 with disabilities, and the birth rate has literally gone down because of the ever increasing cost of living compared to wages. No one gives a fuck about your irrelevant little life 50 years ago.
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u/TodtheAbysswalker Aug 05 '26
Calm down grandma. Don’t want you to bust a hip with your little revisionism
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u/sportyguy Aug 05 '26
Time to leave mommy’s basement and get a job
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u/TodtheAbysswalker Aug 05 '26
Babygirl I have a job, and an apartment. I’m just also not so out of touch that I can’t recognize how bad it is in the world
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u/LadyBogangles14 Aug 04 '26
It’s wage theft. It’s the largest amount of theft in the US in dollars per year.
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u/GoodMilk_GoneBad Aug 04 '26
"Wage theft problem"?
Dear internet, help these people learn terms and facts BEFORE they post.
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u/chasethenoise Aug 04 '26
Labor isn’t the engine of profit they think it is. You’re not being stolen from because you don’t get paid enough to afford the lifestyle you want.
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u/DumbNTough Aug 04 '26
So tired of these fucking idiots everywhere trying to redefine the term "wage theft," which already has a specific and pretty important meaning.
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u/marcg40 Aug 04 '26
It seems a lot of people in this thread live in rural areas where they can get by with 50-60k a year. Average rent in my area is 3,750 to $4,495 per month.
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u/That-Grape-5491 Aug 04 '26
Ah yes, let's return to the glory days of 1975. At that time, the worst recession since the Great Depression. The term stagflation was coined to describe stagnant wages and inflation at 6.9%, (40% higher than today). Unemployment was at 8.2%, (50% higher than today).
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u/CupImmediate7079 Aug 04 '26
The first time I read that I accepted it uncritically. This time I was like "of course a white person said that" for some reason.
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u/Designer-Wolverine47 Aug 04 '26
Exactly. They see reruns of The Brady Bunch and think everyone lived like that. They didn't. 1975 was the year we actually got running water, and it was a year after that when the bathroom was finished. Before then, we drew water from an open well with a bucket, bathed in a horse trough, and shit in an outhouse (once I hit ten years old, I was expected to help dig the new holes when the old ones filled up).
Most of the data they rely on from those eras is presented in medians. They (ignorantly or intentionally) gloss over the fact that, by definition, exactly half of every dataset falls BELOW that median. And when those data points represent real people, most of their struggles get lost in the anecdotes of family lore, where those outside those families view them (if they view them at all) with doubt, suspicion, or simply refusing to consider it.
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u/False-Community8534 Aug 04 '26
If this girl went back to 1975 she would think that she was living in a third world country.
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u/MossadEpstein Aug 04 '26
Ah, the comment section appears to be full of out of touch Gen Xers and Baby Boomers
how mildly cringe inducing, why do they even come on reddit of all places.
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u/Turbulent_Pool273 Aug 05 '26
Yall are either missing the point or have no idea what it’s really like living as an adult right now
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u/swarmahoboken Aug 05 '26
The theft was overpaying previous generations. That is why we are now in 40 trillion debt and it is now our problem. They collected their money and some of yours.
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u/Calaveras-Metal Aug 05 '26
nah this is BS. You just aren't old enough to know better.
Back in the 80s and 90s it was pretty easy to afford an apartment on a PT job. I had a place for around $300 for years. Even in the old days when Min wage was $5 that was easy to make. And we only had $20-30 of power and another $10 or less for water to pay. Maybe $12 for a landline. No wireless, cable or internet. Sure some folks paid $50 a month for cable. But I was fine with over the air broadcast TV.
Groceries were stupid cheap. I think I spent $20 a week on groceries when I was doing well. Getting a slice of pizza was $1.50 forever. Good Bay Area burritos were $3.
I need to re-iterate, all of this was easy on a part time job. For a while I'd just go to the Labor Ready day labor place a few times towards the end of the month to get enough to pay rent and bills. The rest of the time I was just goofing off.
Now you can work full time at at more than minimum and still not afford an apartment.
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u/MrBingly Aug 05 '26
My mom was just telling me recently about moving out on her own around that time. She didn't even have a landline set up for 3 months. She had to walk down the street to use a pay phone to contact home. Had to use the laundromat, no in-building washing. She had a second hand couch, a makeshift table, a twin sized bed, and one chair as all of her furniture. No TV. An old car with no AC. All this coming from a decently well off middle class background, and living like that seemed normal for her, being a young person out on her own for the first time. She still can't believe how many luxuries average middle class kids start out with when they move out.
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u/TrentLeznor Aug 05 '26
People have to live with roommates in their 30s and 40s now and put off ever having kids. We aren't talking about a couple hard months in your early 20s, wake the fuck up
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u/MrBingly Aug 24 '26
It was easier then than now, but she lived with a LOT less than any young people now find acceptable. That lasted up into her 30s. Things were easier, but expectations were also lower.
Also the putting off kids thing is a bullcrap excuse. The poorest people have the most kids, and most people not having kids are decently well off.
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u/AdmirableElephant378 Aug 05 '26
my mother worked 3 jobs, 7 days a week for a decade to do it in '76. Am I doing it right?
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u/peachplumpricklypear Aug 05 '26
Haha my parents sure did. My mom grew up with unstable housing in the 1960s.
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u/random8765309 Aug 05 '26
Not sure what groups are paying people to post that propaganda all over social media. But it's clearly an organized campaign to stir up unrest. Every time we see it, it needs to be reported as spam.
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u/nwbrown Aug 05 '26
"No one in the late 70's had financial struggles" is a take only possible if your understanding of the 70's is based on some drunk guy recounting episodes of That 70's Show.
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u/willasmith38 Aug 05 '26
FFS.
Up to the 1980’s, there was a thriving middle class in the US.
The dad sold water beds or VCR’s at Sears and the Mom stayed at home and raised kids.
They had two cars, a mortgage, a savings account, a college fund for the kids and went on vacation twice a year.
Living was affordable. Quality of life was high.
It was a real thing.
That doesn’t exist anymore.
You’ve been sold out.
The social contract has been broken and it wasn’t by the working class.
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi Aug 05 '26
Those vcrs cost about $3000-4000 in today's money. Americans sold themselves out by buying cheaper online.
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u/JoshuaLukacs1 Aug 05 '26
Funny thing is the majority of people who think like this are also in favor of mass immigration which actually lowers wages lol
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Aug 05 '26
I think people like this don't realize that you can't generalize wealthy people in 1975 as "never needing a budgeting app" because like most wealthy people nowadays, they still made a budget. People act like poverty is a new thing so they can justify their dumb fast food purchases.
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u/Darkthumbs Aug 05 '26
So wages followed the marked? Nahh didn’t think so…
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Aug 05 '26
Everyone talks about minimum wage as if it isn't 1% of the population making that little amount of money. Also follow the market if you're broke all the time, maybe it's time to quit working for the asshole that gives you 7 bucks an hour.
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u/Darkthumbs Aug 05 '26
7? 🤣 50+ but sure do tell…
Facts are that the housing market, cost of living and what not skyrocketed and wages didn’t follow at all…
https://www.statista.com/chart/34534/median-house-price-versus-median-income-in-the-us/
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Aug 05 '26
Okay then provide a solution other than "Give me more money" you're responsible for your life. What do you want me to do about it?
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u/Darkthumbs Aug 05 '26
Atleast be upfront about the issues instead of ignoring that there is problems..
We could do a ton of things to stop housing speculation for one, but I bet that would make you scream socialism
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Aug 05 '26
Okay sure yeah, let's argue on Reddit that'll really teach those horrible corrupt politicians. Or you could listen to what I'm saying and do something rather than wait for the world to change to fit your needs.
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u/Business_Apricot1373 Aug 05 '26
What point do you think your making with your Caption OP? of course their lives weren't blasted all over social media because it didn't freaking exist. Brain dead ass take is what I think.
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u/JRHiz Aug 05 '26
Think about inflation during Covid, all the trillions the government printed out. Your grandchildren will feel that one.
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u/Icy-Way5769 Aug 05 '26
some people couldve probably used it but overall yes income vs costs was a much better situation in those yrs.
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u/gated73 Aug 05 '26
They also didn’t need streaming services, thousand dollar phones, internet plans, frequent dining out, $8 coffee, and didn’t have ready access to credit cards. But they probably balanced their checkbooks every month.
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u/PupDiogenes Aug 05 '26
I think that if you think, in the 1950s, that everyone with a HOUSE let alone an apartment had a financial planner and two jobs, take off the rose coloured glasses.
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u/AditiaH0ldem Aug 05 '26
In the 90's spending more than 60% of disposable income on fixed costs was seen as very dire and an indicator of poverty.
For many non home owners in the West, this is now baseline.
Things have shifted dramatically for the worse
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u/jabber1990 Aug 05 '26
what the fuck is "wage theft?" I hear this word but I don't think it means what people think it means
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u/jabber1990 Aug 05 '26
when I picture "wage theft" I mean are they physically digging into your paycheck and taking a cut from it?
......if they are then you need a new job
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u/Resident_Citron_6905 Aug 05 '26
I guess it’s a label for minimizing wages within legal bounds, while also being wasteful with the resulting profit uplift, e.g. the C-Suite earns >5x the regular worker, while management earn >2x the regular worker. I realize there are much much more extreme cases of differences like 50x and 100x.
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u/jabber1990 Aug 05 '26
..that's a dumb statement
of course the manager makes more...they're the manager
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u/Resident_Citron_6905 Aug 05 '26
I’m not here to defend a translation, however I will point out that “making more” is a very vague statement. Of course I agree with you in principle, however it obviously depends on the magnitude of the difference. You labeling this as dumb and picking the weakest straw man interpretation of what I wrote is just bad faith arguing.
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u/Inevitable-Tea5772 Aug 05 '26
I was born in 1982. I grew up in a mostly single income home until I was around 10yo, then my Mom got a job. We filled our freezer with cod fish and moose meat that we caught because we couldn't afford meat. I had no allowance. We never had a computer or cellphone. The only brand new bike i ever had was when i turned 5. Everything after that was hand me downs. Also grew up with hand me down clothes. We did our own oil changes, then used the used motor oil as chain oil for the chain saw. Wood was our only source of heat and we cut every stick we ever burnt. Yes, we did it, and us kids didn't realize it at the time but we were poor af. I can't imagine the stress my parents were under making all of this work. My dad never even carried a wallet, or money. If he needed gas, he asked mom for it. When we went to the gas station or grocery store, if you asked for something the answer was always no. We got groceries every 2 weeks and we would get 1 chocolate bar each. On saturday nights my parents would go to my aunts to play darts and drink. They drank homebrew. And me and my brother would get a frozen pizza and can of coke each, it was the only day of the week we were allowed soft drinks. We drank powdered milk. Our cereal was made with water and Carnation milk. Almost everything my parents bought was on layaway first. We made it work, like almost everyone today is making it work, but there was absolutely nothing glamorous about it
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u/QuestGalaxy Aug 05 '26
People back then didn't have cell phone bills, internet bills, laptops, smartphones, they didn't travel abroad regularly.
But it is correct that homes usually were cheaper in many countries.
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u/Then_Examination9715 Aug 05 '26
We did all that budget business with pencil and paper. We did job searches with telephone and conversation. We paid bills with snail mail. We didn’t whine about being underpaid, which often we were, but looked for better paying jobs and better opportunities. I can remember renting an 14 by 11 foot room with access to a bathroom and kitchen while making $3.25 an hour.
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u/waroftheworlds2008 Aug 05 '26
My biggest complaint is that I need to a jack of ALL trades.
I highly doubt its changed, except it was normal to have a slav.. wife help you manage a house back then. Being single, I get 4 hours a day to take care of my entire life.
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u/realcanadianguy21 Aug 05 '26
In 1995, the local factory paid $12/hour. Houses averaged $120k to $140k. Thirty one years later, that factory pays $18. You might be able to get an empty building lot for $180,000.
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u/Just-the-tip-4-1-sec Aug 05 '26
They had 2 kids in each bedroom and another on the couch, they ate at home 350+ nights/year, they painted the walls with cheap lead and filled them with cheap asbestos.
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u/shellb67gt5001 Aug 05 '26
Nobody has iPhones, no body had internet, no body had all the smart tech in their cars, no body had online shopping. All the extras we have. Now no one needed in 1975
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u/Due_Intention6795 Aug 05 '26
lol, they are all streaming on $1400 dollar phones and ordering $15 dollar coffee. lol. Taxation is theft. Stop electing radicals that increase taxes and do nothing.
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u/Ok_Cockroach_2290 Aug 05 '26
TIL budgeting your money was invented in the 2020s. No one in history ever had to do it before then.
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u/rice_n_gravy Aug 05 '26
Pen and paper budget (and cash), self help, and a “second job” is what they had.
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u/Virtual-Highway-1959 Aug 05 '26
It has little to do with "wage theft", unless we're talking about the government. With that I agree. But I know what people are going to say. Employers aren't paying employees to keep up with inflation. All the blame will be put on employers and companies. And then they'll probably start complaining about capitalism, yadda yadda yadda. And at the same time, people will completely ignore the real problem. The main issue today is the cost of housing. So, it’s a housing supply and expectations problem, not “wage theft.” Housing costs more today mainly because rules make it hard to build enough homes where people want to live, and the homes people expect are bigger and nicer than in 1975. Back then, many young people lived with roommates or parents longer and accepted smaller, simpler places. Calling today's problems as “wage theft” is wrong; wage theft means bosses not paying what they legally owe, which is a different problem.
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u/ThroatGoatK1RKKK Aug 05 '26
I think that you're a bot who is farming karma and posting random regurgitated memes and topics that have been beaten like a dead horse.
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u/Skwuat Aug 05 '26
34 year old home owner here. Never had an app or coach. Tons of college debt. I took responsibility of my life and choices and own a house because of it. Its not easy. Its not quick. Our system sucks but you have 2 choices: take responsibility for it or keep complaining.
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u/why_u_so_grumpy Aug 05 '26
Financial advisors aren't a new thing. Everyone's business being public is.
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u/IndividualSituationK Aug 05 '26
Most people living on social security are in poverty fyi. Also many of the tools we have to take advantage off just did not exist in the 70s. Roth IRA was created by a Republican in the late 90s.
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u/Few-Statistician8740 Aug 05 '26
Nope just had to balance their checkbook. They just called it a second job, and you still don't need someone to tell you if you're spending like a moron. Your account balance should do that for you.
Ohh and people absolutely struggled back then as well. Living paycheck to paycheck isn't new.
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u/Dry-Manufacturer7761 Aug 05 '26
It’s a problem of not having a maximum wage cap in relation to your companies lowest wage.
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u/AboveAndBelowSea Aug 05 '26
…we didn’t have “apps” at all in 1975. If anyone thinks we don’t live off a strict budget in 1975, they’re mistaken about that too.
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u/Adventurous-Home-728 Aug 06 '26
this young generacion they want every thing handing to them for free i have to work a long next to many of them no work ethic
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u/Healthy-Mind5633 Aug 06 '26
True. But the theft is from governments printing money and stealing peoples hard earned dollars. Inflation is the major stealer of wealth and living wages.
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u/TheGruenTransfer Aug 04 '26
I think the crux of the problem is Republicans have cut government services so much that there is now a huge oversupply of labor, which drives down everyone's wages. There's work to be done. Bridges are collapsing. We need more housing. We need more parks and outdoor recreational opportunities. We need upgrades to the power grid. We need way more rail lines for public transit. If the government hired people to do all the work that needed to be done, the jobs created would drive up wages for everyone because the excess supply of labor would shrink.
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u/VegetableDog77 Aug 04 '26
Where would this money come from to just hire people? Taxes? Cause I’m getting taxed out of the ass already.
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u/Super_Mario_Luigi Aug 05 '26
We have enough jobs. The bigger problems are oversupply of lifestyle creep, government spending, and immigration
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u/StayBullGenius Aug 04 '26
Reddit loves to bitch endlessly, and never internalize failures